Are you looking to improve your brand’s social media presence? A social media audit can be a helpful tool to assess your current strategies and identify areas for improvement. But where do you start? Following these steps can fine-tune your social media strategy and effectively reach your target audience. So keep reading if you’re ready to take your brand’s social media presence to the next level.
Conducting a social media audit is easy with these pro tips
Conducting a social media audit can provide valuable insights into the growth and performance of your business on social media. But don’t worry. Even though the name sounds boring, a social media audit doesn’t have to be tedious or time-consuming. In fact, there are ways to make measuring important metrics quite easy.
Caption: With a plan in place, conducting a social media audit will be a piece of cake.
Alt-tag: A person wearing a yellow sweater typing on a laptop while sitting at a desk.
Of course, considering that every brand is different, you should feel free to customize your social media audit based on your needs. To get a big-picture view and make timely changes, we recommend conducting a social media audit monthly or quarterly. That’s a great way to ensure you’ll improve your social media ROI. Now let’s proceed to our step-by-step guide for conducting a social media audit.
#1 Take inventory of all of your social media profiles
Before beginning a social media audit, taking stock of your social media profiles is essential. This includes not just the major networks like Facebook and Twitter. You should also include accounts you don’t use as frequently. Even if you’re no longer active on specific platforms, claiming them and keeping them under your company’s control is still a good idea.
Once you’ve identified all your social media profiles, the next step is to decide which platforms you want to focus on. A social media audit can help you determine which profiles are your top performers and where you should allocate your resources. On top of that, it can also help you identify opportunities on networks that you may have been neglecting.
#2 Define goals for each of your networks
The next step in your social media audit is defining your goals. It’s important to clarify your social media goals for each platform you’re active on. For example, increasing brand awareness, generating leads, increasing community engagement, growing your audience, or increasing website traffic.
This will not only guide your presence but also help you identify which metrics to track for each platform. Let’s say you want to have improved communication with your followers and customers. By analyzing relevant metrics, you might, for example, find reasons to connect CRM with social media. When it comes to your metrics, the context of your goals is crucial. Therefore, focus on the metrics that align with your goals.
#3 Analyze the data you have
Now it’s time to check your social media analytics tools. Gather the data you need, and analyze it to see how your social media profiles perform. There are plenty of metrics to look at to assess your profiles’ performance, including engagement, link clicks, shares, referral traffic, impressions, and more. By doing a thorough analysis, you’ll be able to determine which channels outperform others. This will help you know where to direct your efforts.
Caption: Analyzing data from your social media platforms will help you gain valuable insights and figure out if there are any areas of improvement.
Alt-tag: Person typing on a laptop and using Google Analytics.
#4 Dig into individual posts
It’s important to analyze individual posts to understand what types of content your audience enjoys most. Look at each piece of content’s impressions, engagements, and reach to get a sense of what’s performing well. There are plenty of tools to help you highlight top-performing posts in seconds and even measure hashtag performance across your social media profiles.
Another good idea is to categorize your top posts based on criteria such as videos, promotional posts, educational/informative content, entertainment, and rich media. This will give you a clear understanding of what’s working on each channel. Furthermore, it will allow you to incorporate more of that type of successful content into your future social media calendar.
#5 Analyze the demographic data
Demographic data is crucial when it comes to how you speak to your audience, prioritize different content or platforms, and so much more. For example, messaging for different age groups, such as Gen Z and millennials, as opposed to Gen X and baby boomers should be tailored accordingly.
Some networks, like Twitter and Facebook, provide demographic data, but there are also different tools that can give you a high-level breakdown of all your profiles. It’s important to ensure that your audience data is similar across all your platforms. If not, you may need to reevaluate your messaging and content strategy for specific platforms.
#6 Ensure you’re consistent across all platforms
Consistency is key when it comes to branding on social media. However, it’s easy to overlook some details. Therefore, as you audit your social presence, ensure your profiles are consistent in creatives, promotions, and campaigns. This includes the language in your bio and “About” section, your profile and banner images, landing pages, destination URLs, hashtags, and similar.
Caption: One of the most important things to check during your social media audit is if your branding and content are consistent across different platforms.
Alt-tag: A person holding a phone with an Instagram feed open.
If your main goal is to drive traffic to your website, you may not need to make many changes from audit to audit. However, brands that run seasonal campaigns should regularly assess these details to ensure everything is up to date. The last thing you want is Christmas promo materials on your website in the middle of February.
Good luck conducting your social media audit
As you can see, a social media audit is essential for any business looking to improve its presence on social media. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate leads, conducting a social media audit can help you achieve your goals. However, if you lack digital marketing experience, this can feel overwhelming. So if you’re unsure where to start, don’t hesitate to reach out to a social media consultant for guidance.